Monroe first step expected soon

— The decision to either plaster Fort Monroe with condos or to turn it into a national park may soon come down to simple choices: "possibly" or "not likely."

Early next year officials with the National Park Service will wrap up a first study to recommend if Fort Monroe is "possibly" or "not likely" a good fit to become a national park when the Army leaves in 2011.

Once that determination has been reached, it's up to Congress to set aside more federal dollars —about $300,000 — for a more in-depth study.

"It's not easy to be a national park," Terrence D. Moore, a representative with the National Park Service, said during a public meeting Thursday. The session at the Northampton Community Center was held to brief residents about the initial study and gauge support for the national park idea.

Criteria to become a national park includes a site being under threat from development, not protected by anyone else, having public support and being an asset to the already existing park system, Moore explained.

The federal government set aside $25,000 for the study as part of legislation passed by the General Assembly earlier this year. The study, which usually takes six to 12 months, is expected to wrap up this January or in spring.

But Thursday night some of the more than 120 residents at the meeting made their passionate case for Fort Monroe as a national park.

"Fort Monroe's history should be persevered for the American people," said Col. Neill McInnis, retired from U.S. Army and director of the Hampton Historical Society. "You won't find another place like this... owned by the people and paid by the people... and here it is on the block."

Most of the 570-acre site which is already a national historic landmark will become state-owned property once the Army leaves in 2011. But the future of the historic fort is still a big and controversial question.

"What other possible landmark is there that is more deserving than Fort Monroe?" said York County resident Kelly Place.

Some of the proposals for the post's future focus on the historic preservation on the south end of the waterfront base and on the environmental open space at the north end. Three proposals focus on building homes in the central section of the post, but there may also be a shift to more commercial development or tourism with restaurants, hotels and museums.

Some residents asked park officials if the already floating development proposals would not automatically be considered a threat and make Fort Monroe eligible to become a national park.

"It's already a national historic landmark," said H.O. Malone, president of the grassroots group Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park. "That already puts it on the level of a national park."

Whether or not the park service can afford to preserve and maintain Fort Monroe is yet another obstacle for the federal government to overcome, officials have said.

State Del. Tom Gear, R.-Hampton, who was instrumental in getting the study launched, said he felt encouraged by Thursday's support for Fort Monroe as a national park.

In the past five years the National Park Service has studied four or five sites and on average only about half of those go forward to the more in-depth study, according to park officials.

"I was at first skeptical," Gear said. But then, he said, he recently learned for example, that a national park generates an average of about $4 in revenue for surrounding communities for every federal dollar spent for the park.

Turning Fort Monroe into a condo development would not be "a freebie," he said, but would cost the city in building infrastructure such as roads, sewer and water.

"It would be great to make it into a national park," Gear said. "It would be a terrific tourism attraction. The more I learn about it, the more I like the idea."